The Officine Universelle Buly store is one of those magical places that lives in my memory and makes me want to go back to that specific time and place – time being responsibility free, and space being Paris.
The store, the customer service, the perfumes. The whole experience was amazing.
We got to the store 15 minutes before closing, so it was already dark outside and we didn’t have much time, hence why I don’t have any decent photos of the interior to share, but the store is really beautiful – it has that antique apothecary look, very scenic and belle époque-esque.
Even though we got there near closing time, we were not rushed. I felt like I was treated like a long time customer. I took my time going through almost all the scents while listening to the difference between alcohol and water based fragrances (water based are supposedly a lot more long lasting, which makes sense since alcohol easily evaporates).
I fell in love with Forêt de Komi. I bought the perfumed body oil since the perfume was quite a bit more expensive for me to commit to, even more so because the (absolutely lovely) sales assistant told me that I should really “test drive” the scent on the skin because it could develop totally differently than what I was sampling on the store. I also got the soap and a limited edition body oil that was a collaboration with the Louvre and that I’m probably not going to review here since it’s gone forever.
Forêt de Komi (or Komi Forest) is described as a “deeply green fragrance with wood and mineral accords”. The “deeply” green should be interpreted not as “very” green but actually as a green fragrance that’s still quite deep – think moss after rain instead of freshly cut grass. The “greens” in this are not the fresh, bright, herbal notes we usually associate with the colour, instead they are those forest, humid, dark winter notes – almost Christmas-y, I would say, because pine comes to mind, and the wood notes have a hint of sweetness, which reminds me of cinnamon and nutmeg even though this scent contains neither of those.
I also found something in it that isn’t easy to come by but that I found in Clarins’ Eau Dynamisante: the scent of saline solution. This is a compliment, I love that note, whatever it is, and I think that is what the brand’s description of “mineral accords” is referring to. Before smelling Forêt de Komi I wouldn’t be able to say what mineral notes would be like in a perfume, but after trying it, it makes senses, and “mineral” is a description that fits this note perfectly.
In terms of scent evolution, there isn’t much. The scent you detect on the bottle will be the same once on the skin – mine, at least. On the skin, for the first few minutes, the moss note feels more intense, but half an hour later that subsides and sweet wood and mineral notes completely take over.
This is a dry oil, not a traditional perfume, so it’s not fair to compare sillage and longevity with that other medium. After applying it all over my body, sillage is still intimate, and longevity is quite good (after 10 hours I can smell it with almost the same intensity as when I first applied it).
The dry oils cost 43€ and come in a 190ml bottle with an old looking metal cap. The bottle itself feels quite substantial, being made of heavy white glass, and it is something I’ll certainly keep even after using up the oil – but the label is coming off and the cap broke after 4 uses. I added the picture to show how the inner, black plastic part of the cap is cracked, and even though it doesn’t look that bad, it makes it a nuisance to open and close the bottle.
Buly also has a website that is definitely worth a visit, and they sell their products online and ship worldwide. I might just have to place an order because I don’t know how soon I can get back to Paris, and I’m due on trying their perfume format. They currently have a sampling kit of 12 of their fragrances that is calling my name…
